EXPLAINER
Firearms are the main reason for dying for US younger folks aged 18 to 25, surpassing drug poisoning and different causes.
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Printed On 25 Apr 2025
After a gunman at Florida State College killed two folks and wounded at the least six others final week, an advocacy group posted about firearm-related deaths.
“Gun violence is the main killer of college-aged folks within the US,” Mothers Demand Motion, a part of gun violence prevention organisation Everytown for Gun Security, posted on April 17 on Threads. “Our younger folks deserve higher.”
In line with well being consultants and the newest information, the assertion is correct for firearm-related deaths on this class of younger folks.
Everytown for Gun Security launched a 2023 report citing 2021 Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) information exhibiting firearms are the primary mechanism of dying for folks aged 18 to 25. Everytown for Gun Security spokesperson Katie Wertheimer additionally pointed to a 2022 article revealed within the journal Pediatrics that discovered “firearms are the main reason for dying in youngsters and youth 0 to 24 years of age in the US.”
PolitiFact queried the CDC’s Internet-based Damage Statistics Question and Reporting System for information on the newest harm deaths for ages 18 to 25. In 2023, firearms have been the mechanism that accounted for essentially the most deaths in that age group, at 8,086. For ages 24 and 25, drug poisoning was the highest trigger.
CDC information confirmed accidents, adopted by suicide and murder, have been the main causes of dying amongst folks aged 18 to 25. These classes all embrace firearm-related deaths. Brian Tsai, a CDC spokesperson, advised PolitiFact that though the company doesn’t rank firearm deaths as a number one reason for dying as a result of they happen throughout classes, “our information does present that firearms are the main mechanism of harm mortality.”
“Classes for rating reason for dying should be mutually unique and it has been CDC’s longstanding coverage to rank the murder, suicide and unintentional harm classes,” Tsai stated in an e mail. “CDC doesn’t classify firearms as a reason for dying, however moderately as a mechanism by which dying happens (identical is true for motorcar accidents).”
The CDC considers unintentional firearm accidents as “deadly or nonfatal firearm accidents that occur whereas somebody is cleansing or taking part in with a firearm or different incidents of an unintentional firing with out proof of intentional hurt”.
In 2023, CDC information confirmed unintentional accidents (14,238) have been the main reason for dying amongst folks ages 18 to 25, adopted by suicide (5,632) and murder (5,060). Narrowing all the way down to deaths by firearm, the bulk have been homicides (4,651), adopted by suicides (3,158).
Gun-rights advocates query whether or not the time period “gun violence” ought to embrace suicides. Nations, corresponding to Canada and Australia, embrace firearm suicide in that time period. Surveys about gun violence use various language and standards on together with suicide deaths.
Daniel Webster, distinguished scholar for the Johns Hopkins Heart for Gun Violence Options, advised PolitiFact the Mothers Demand Motion assertion is correct.
Veronica Pear, a College of California Davis Faculty of Medication social epidemiologist and assistant professor, additionally stated the statistic is correct, based mostly on 2023 mortality information, noting that “gun violence” contains suicide and murder.
Wertheimer referred PolitiFact to a 2024 article by KFF, a well being data nonprofit that features KFF Well being Information, that stated firearm-related deaths amongst ages 18 to 25 “are predominantly resulting from homicides”.
Shootings on faculty and faculty grounds seem to make up a small portion of firearm-related deaths amongst folks aged 18 to 25. In line with Everytown for Gun Security, there have been 463 deaths from gunfire on faculty grounds since 2013. A median of 4,300 youngsters and teenagers, as much as age 19, have been shot and killed per yr from 2019 to 2023, Everytown for Gun Security reported.
Our ruling
Mothers Demand Motion stated “gun violence is the main killer of college-aged folks within the US”.
Unintentional deaths ranked no 1 for folks ages 18 to 25 in 2023, and firearms have been the “main mechanism”, based on the CDC.
Primarily based on professional evaluation and the info, we price the assertion True.
